Fantasy Ranking: 2nd Half [David Stefanini]

The fantasy staff at ESPN.com has put out a list of the top players for your fantasy baseball team in the second half of the season. Here is a peek at the top 10.

1. Albert Pujols
2. Hanley Ramirez
3. Ryan Braun
4. David Wright
5. Chase Utley
6. Ian Kinsler
7. Carl Crawford
8. Tim Lincecum
9. Mark Teixeira
10. Miguel Cabrera

When I looked at this list I initially thought why is Teixeira there and not A-Rod? Who was the genius that made that error? Look at Teixeira's numbers: .275/21/63/56/1 (Avg, HR, RBI, R, SB). Now look at A-Rod's: .256/17/50/35/3. Tex has played 26 more games than A-Rod, and A-Rod is just beginning to shake off the rust. A-Rod on average is hitting more HR's, driving in more runs, and he already has more stolen bases. His average is so low because when he first came back he couldn't hit anything. In the second half, Tex is going to do what he always does, and more than likely so will A-Rod. With that said who would you rather have, a healthy A-Rod, or a healthy Tex?

Next how is David Wright so high on this list? He is stealing a lot of bases and he has a very nice batting average, but wouldn't you want Crawford instead? Crawford's batting average won't hurt your team at all, he steals more than twice the amount of bases and this season he even has more home runs than Wright. Their RBIs and runs scored numbers are very close.

So there are my thoughts on this. It's a very good list and I would suggest looking at the remainder of the top 250 players on it. However, if you can pick up A-Rod and only have to pay like he is a player outside the top 10, do it. He will have a monstrous second half like he always does. Also, if you can get top dollar for Tex I would trade him. There are several players you can get at 1B to fill in for his power.